Post by HundredProofSam on Mar 30, 2007 13:20:25 GMT 6

Codemaster's upcoming installment in the long-running and exceedingly popular Colin McRae series isn't just the best-looking rally game we've seen, it's one of the best-looking next generation titles, period. This week we've been lucky enough to go hands-on with Colin McRae: DIRT and were immediately blown away by the impressive visuals, superb handling and high-speed rally racing. Clearly Codemasters has had its best development team locked up in a garage for several years with only programming tools for company, if the impressive results we've seen so far are anything to go by.

For those that haven't been following the progress of DIRT - more fool you - it's the latest rally game featuring Scotland's favourite off-road racer. After successful appearances on previous generation consoles, Codemasters has invested plenty of time and effort into this latest iteration, even building its own game engine (called Neon) especially for DIRT. It's also the first Colin McRae to feature Hill Climb events and Rally Raid competitions. So far, so good… but we were interested to see if DIRT could live up to our high expectations.

Luckily, from the moment we fired up the preview build of the game, we were amazed by how slick everything felt. Even the menus have a level of polish we weren't expecting. As you select the race you want to take part in, options fly around like someone's been watching that bit with the futuristic computer in Minority Report too much. The impressive menus continue as you're waiting for a track to load. Rather than a simple loading bar, stats flash up on the screen showing how many miles you've covered, how many times you've travelled on just two wheels and other fascinating, if superfluous, information. For once we were quite happy for the game to take its time loading up.

Truthfully, we would have settled for a kitten in a bucket during loading, given how good the actual game is. Our first challenge was a Hill Race on Pikes Peak - a location immediately recognisable to American rally fans - and we were instantly impressed by the astounding level of detail Codemasters has packed into the course. Everything from mountains to houses, or even port-a-loos, are in exactly the right place compared to their real-life counterparts. Other nice touches include crowds lining the edge of the track that, unlike Gran Turismo HD Concept, actually respond when your car slams into the barrier in front of them.

Unfortunately our car slammed into the barriers a little more often than we would like. That's because - compared to most modern racers - McRae pulls no punches when it comes to difficulty. Part of the game's charm is pushing your driving skills to the limit by braking at the last moment and hopefully skidding round the corner ready to fly straight towards the next one. Those worried that Codemasters may have tweaked the difficulty to sit more comfortably alongside the likes of Need for Speed fret not - DIRT is still a tough but enjoyable challenge demanding you find the perfect racing line to succeed, just like previous McRae ventures.

Ridge Racer fans expecting to drift round bends at 180mph are in for a rude awakening. Instead, decent lap times require that you hone your driving skills and learn when best to brake hard before slamming down the accelerator and powering out of a bend. Thankfully, tight controls mean that easing off the gas slightly when braking round a bend or squeezing pedal to metal on open ground feels extremely natural.

Although crashes were a regular occurrence for us initially, there was a silver lining in so far as each smash helped demonstrate DIRT's incredible damage engine. Slight knocks against objects dint and scratch the paintwork of each car, whereas a full head-on collision with a tree can crumple the bonnet like an accordion. Icons on the right-hand side of the screen show how much damage each section of your car has endured - with red indicating your car is basically about to fall to bits.

That said, cars can take quite a lot of damage to peripheral elements, like the bodywork. At one point we even managed to stay road-bound on three wheels briefly before tumbling off the track and smacking into a tree. However, damage affects the performance of your car, so it's inadvisable to keep whacking into things at 100mph. Still, it's great fun watching race replays, trying to pinpoint when you lost your wing mirror or your gearbox started crumbling after one too many collisions.

There've been a few complaints across internet forums about the fact that DIRT only runs in 30 frames per second. To be honest, it's hardly noticeable when you're hurtling round a hairpin bend trying desperately to beat your best time. DIRT isn't choppy at 30FPS: it certainly didn't ruin our experience of the game. Of course, the pay-off is that the game looks so damn awesome. After reaching the heavens with some of our favourite ever videogame clouds in Heatseeker, Codemasters has brought things back down to earth with the most realistic road surfaces we've seen in a game. Thundering along in first-person view - where you're hanging perilously close to the tarmac - is an intensely thrilling experience and the sense of speed is almost unparalleled.

DIRT is definitely shaping up to be a truly next generation racing game, which looks great and plays brilliantly too. Its June release for Xbox 360 and PC - with a PS3 version following soon after - can't come quick enough for us.

Post by <<<{AnMoL}>>> on Mar 30, 2007 23:27:19 GMT 6

Codemasters has sent word that they have uploaded an exclusive gameplay video of their forthcoming game, Colin McRae: DIRT on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The video reveals the classic rally, Rally Cross, Crossover, Rally Raid and C.O.R.R buggy and truck action across striking environments.

Colin McRae: DIRT for the Xbox 360 and PC will release in June 2007. A PS3 version will also be launched, but it will come a little later than the Xbox 360 and the PC versions. Colin McRae games always had the best graphics compared to other racing games and it would be worth waiting for the PS3 version as Sony’s next-gen console has the best graphics processor.